[Fisherman]

Like many my plot has been sodden now for months and I was wondering how long winter root crops like Parsnips, Swede and Autumn King Carrots can cope with the conditions? I could lift them and store them but would prefer not to.

My Brussels rotted off in the wet conditions weeks ago and they were in a raised bed!

Makes me wonder whether the ground will dry out in readiness for the next growing season 

Its absolutely hammering down at the moment. Lets hope for a sunny 2013

[Trillium]

I watched someone's video somewhere where they had the same problem and were forced to dig them up because some of the veg had already started to rot and digging up was the only way to salvage the rest. Better to have something than nothing.

The UK seems to be having some strange weather patterns and it's either drought, or unusual freezing, or continuous rain so there seems little point in fighting the inevitable. My choice would be to dig up what's left and have alternative plans in mind for spring if it continues.

[Fisherman]

I think you might be right Trillium and perhaps I'm just avoiding the inevitable. I am considering putting cloches over part of the crops to see if that helps and the rest will be dug up and stored.

As for the weather I have never known such wet conditions. Hopefully the unusual freezing conditions won't follow!

[Yana]

I haven't been to the lottie since before the weekend (work got in the way) so am now dreading what I might find.
If the ground is very wet I have opaque plastic that I can make clothes out of but won't this make the problem worse if I don't make sure that the air can circulate?

[Annen]

I've given up for the duration, I only have brassica and a few spindly leeks, the rest is mud. Oh and some winter onions.

[pdblake]

Not sure cloches are going to help with waterlogging. They'll stop the rain directly but they won't stop it pooling.

[sarajane]

Oh dear Annen and you look as though you have a lovely plot under all that water

[Annen]

Oh dear Annen and you look as though you have a lovely plot under all that water

Thanks for the sympathy, sob! 
At least it is only half my plot some on the site are totally submerged, you can just see the tops of cabbages sticking out the water.  Double height raised beds next year I think.

[sarajane]

O my gosh, that looks deep.  Floating cabbages   

[Eblana]

I have autumn king carrots in my PT.  Went up the other day to see did they need watering  only to find that even the PT where the plastic covering is dug down over 2.5 foot into the ground is waterlogged in places because the water table is now so high.  The rest of the plot has an awful lot of standing water between the raised beds.

[Annen]

Went up the other day to see did they need watering 

 

[New shoot]

Really sorry to hear people are losing winter crops now after such a dissapointing summer   That picture of the submerged cabbages just says it all  

My plot is on a steep slop so no standing water, but it is also clay soil so trying to stay off it as I will just compact it to solid lumps.  Will count my blessings I think and go try and harvest something at the weekend when hopefully, the cold snap will have firmed up the ground a bit  

[davejg]

The pics made me realise how lucky we are on our plot. I was even able to do a bit of digging on sunday.

[aelf]

I don't have any standing water on my plot but it is saturated just below the surface, and my plot is usually very free-draining. The water table is very high at the moment so I've abandoned it all now til the new year - don't want to cause more damage by walking on (or should that be 'wading through') the soil.

Question is, what to do with all this spare time 

[JayG]

My soil is very sandy on top of sandstone subsoil and drains away like a sieve (but so do all the nutrients!)

Someone somewhere must have that medium crumbly loam we are often told is the ideal soil for growing most things in, but I have yet to see anyone boasting of it on here!